July 25 (Bloomberg) -- United Parcel Service Inc., the
world’s largest package-delivery company, said it can save 40
percent in fuel costs by running its long-haul semi-tractor
trailer fleet on natural gas instead of gasoline or diesel.

UPS is reducing gasoline and diesel use to cut emissions
and operate more efficiently, Scott Wicker, the Atlanta-based
company’s chief sustainability officer, said in an interview
today. The company wants to reach 1 billion miles (1.62 billion
kilometers) driven by alternative or advanced-technology
vehicles by 2017, up from a previous target of around 400
million, it said today in its sustainability report.

“It’s really the vehicles that are on the freeways that
burn the most fuel,” Wicker said. “Right now natural gas is
the big game changer.”

Earlier this year, UPS said it would buy almost 1,000
liquefied natural gas, or LNG, tractors in the next two years to
boost its fleet of 2,700 alternative fuel and advanced-technology vehicles. It’s adding LNG refueling infrastructure
with partners in the U.S. Southwest and buying electric trucks,
which work best in densely populated areas, Wicker said.

UPS has been cutting costs in recent quarters by trimming
flying, retiring older vehicles and rolling out a system to
adjust drivers’ routes in real-time. The company reported a 4
percent slip in second-quarter net revenue on July 23.

The efforts to make the company more sustainable help UPS’s
bottom line, saving about $50 million for each mile saved a
year, Wicker said. “We only do them when we have a return on
investment that’s acceptable to us,” Wicker said.

UPS has a fleet of more than 96,000 vehicles, including
more than 2,600 that run on alternative fuel, according to its
website.